Methods and Systems for Determining a Telecommunications Service Location Using Global Satellite Positioning

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided for obtaining information related to a customer service location and directions for routing a service technician from one customer service location to another. One embodiment includes requesting at least one set of coordinates associated with the customer service location; accessing a technician server to direct a global satellite positioning system to obtain the set of coordinates for the customer service location; obtaining the coordinates and updating one or more databases with said coordinates. The coordinates may include at least one of a latitude and a longitude associated with the customer service location. Another embodiment includes obtaining through a technician server at least one set of “from” coordinates associated with the first customer service location and at least one set of “to” coordinates associated with the second customer location; transmitting the “from” and “to” coordinates to a mapping system; and, generating directions in the mapping system based on the “to” and “from” coordinates. At least one of the sets of coordinates includes latitude and longitude data. System and computer-readable media embodiments of these methods are also provided.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/637,659 filed Dec. 12,2007, which issued on Nov. 6, 2007 as U.S. Pat. No. 7,292,939, which isa continuation of application Ser. No. 10/445,861 filed May 27, 2003,which issued on Mar. 6, 2007 as U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,027, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 10/032,853 filed Oct. 25, 2001,which issued on Aug. 3, 2004 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,064.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present methods and systems generally relate to processing andtransmitting information to facilitate providing service in atelecommunications network. The methods and systems discussed hereinmore particularly relate to use of global satellite positioning tofacilitate processing and transmission of information associated withtelecommunications service locations and routing travel between morethan one such service location.

2. Description of the Related Art

Efficient and effective customer service is an essential requirement forcommercial enterprises to compete successfully in today's businessworld. In the telecommunications industry, for example, providingcustomer service is an important part of sustaining market share in viewof the many competitors in the industry. Customers whose telephoneservice, for example, is interrupted or disconnected for even arelatively short period of time may desire to seek an alternative sourcefor service, especially if the interruption or disconnection is notaddressed by a quick and effective customer service response.

One important aspect of providing customer service is maintainingaccurate and complete knowledge of the customer's location. Computersystems and databases that provide customer addresses often only providevague references, however, to the exact location of the customer. Suchcustomer addresses typically do not include information of sufficientspecificity to permit efficient identification of a service locationassociated with the customer. In the context of a techniciantransporting a vehicle to a customer's service location, for example,this lack of sufficient service location information can generateexcessive driving time and slow response time. Where the response timeis unacceptably high, the lack of sufficient service locationinformation can result in delayed or missed customer commitments. It canbe appreciated that such delayed or missed customer commitments cancause a commercial enterprise to lose valuable customers.

What are needed, therefore, are methods and systems for acquiringinformation associated with a customer's service location. Such methodsand systems are needed to obtain, for example, a latitude and longitudeassociated with the customer's service location. In one aspect, iflatitude and longitude information could be collected by a servicetechnician when the customer's service location is visited, thosecoordinates could then be used to find the customer at a later date.Moreover, if latitude and longitude coordinates could be made availablein a database associated with that specific customer, the coordinatescould be used to assist in determining the service location of thatcustomer. Such service location information could permit a servicetechnician to drive directly to the customer service location withlittle or no time lost searching for the service location.

What are also needed are methods and systems for providing a servicetechnician with directions, such as driving directions between two ormore service locations. Such directions could be employed to routetravel from a first customer service location to a second customerservice location. It can be seen that such directions would furtherreduce the possibility of error in locating a customer service locationand thereby enhance customer service response time.

SUMMARY

Methods and systems are provided for obtaining information related to acustomer service location. One embodiment of the method includesrequesting at least one set of coordinates associated with the customerservice location; accessing a technician server to direct a globalsatellite positioning system to obtain the set of coordinates for thecustomer service location; obtaining the coordinates and updating one ormore databases with the coordinates. The coordinates may include atleast one of a latitude and a longitude associated with the customerservice location. One embodiment of a system for obtaining informationrelated to a customer service location includes an input deviceconfigured for use by a service technician at the customer servicelocation. A technician server is included in the system for receivingdata transmissions from the input device. The technician server is incommunication with a global positioning satellite system for determininga set of coordinates associated with the input device. Computer-readablemedia embodiments are also presented in connection with these methodsand systems.

In addition, methods and systems are discussed herein for generatingdirections for a service technician traveling from a first customerservice location to at least a second customer service location. Oneembodiment of the method includes obtaining through a technician serverat least one set of “from” coordinates associated with the firstcustomer service location and at least one set of “to” coordinatesassociated with the second customer location; transmitting the “from”and “to” coordinates to a mapping system; and, generating directions inthe mapping system based on the “to” and the “from” coordinates. Onesystem embodiment includes an input device configured for use by aservice technician at a first customer service location. A technicianserver is provided for receiving data transmissions from the inputdevice. A global positioning satellite system, which is configured fordetermining at least one set of “from” coordinates associated with theinput device is provided for use on an as needed basis. At least onedatabase is included in the system for storing a “to” set of coordinatesassociated with the second customer service location and the “from” setof coordinates. The system further includes a mapping system operativelyassociated with the input device for generating travel directions basedon the “from” and “to” coordinates. At least one of the sets ofcoordinates includes latitude and a longitude data. Computer-readablemedia embodiments of these methods and systems are also provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram depicting one embodiment of a system forobtaining, processing, and transmitting information related to providingcustomer service at a customer service location;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram depicting a portion of the system of FIG.1 in more detail;

FIG. 3 is a process flow diagram showing one embodiment of a method forobtaining, transmitting and processing information related to providingservice at a customer service location;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram depicting one embodiment of a system forobtaining, processing, and transmitting information related to providingcustomer service at a customer service location; and,

FIG. 5 is a progress flow diagram depicting one embodiment of a methodfor obtaining, processing, and transmitting information related toproviding customer service at a customer service location.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, a service technician visiting a customerservice location is provided with a technician input device 2 forreceiving and transmitting information related to a disruption orinterruption of service at the service location. The input device 2 canbe a wireless PC, for example, a laptop, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a wireless pager or any other device suitable for receiving andtransmitting data associated with providing service at the customerservice location. A transponder system 4 is operatively associated withthe input device 2 for receiving and transmitting signals such assatellite transmission signals, for example.

The input device 2 is configured and programmed to permit the servicetechnician to access a technician server 6. As shown in FIG. 1, accessto the technician server 6 can be enabled through a wireless datanetwork 8 through a radio connection 10. Access to the technician servercan also be enabled by a modem connection 12 through a landline server14. The landline server 14 can be a server configured in accordance witha server having a CSX 7000 trade designation employed by BellSouthTelecommunications (BST—Atlanta, Ga.).

A protocol server 16 receives and processes communications from both thewireless data network 8 and the landline server 14. In operation of theinput device 2, the protocol server 16 processes information transmittedfrom the input device 2 including, for example, a user ID, a password, aradio serial number, an input device serial number, and other similardata associated with a service technician and service provided at acustomer service location. In one aspect, the protocol server 16 caninclude one or more WINDOWS NT servers (Microsoft Corporation)configured to assign one or more logical ports to transmissions receivedfrom the input device 2.

In one aspect of the present methods and systems, the technician server6 can be a server having a TECHACCESS trade designation (TelcordiaTechnologies). The technician server 6 can be a conventional serverconfigured and programmed to verify and/or process information receivedfrom the input device 2. The technician server 6 functions as atransaction request broker between the protocol server 16 and one ormore other systems operatively connected to the technician server 6. Thesystems operatively associated with the technician server 6 can include,among other possible systems, a global positioning satellite system 18(GPS system), a dispatch system 20, an address guide system 22, and acustomer records system 24.

In one embodiment of the present methods and systems, the GPS system 18can be configured in accordance with the BellSouth TelecommunicationsGlobal Positioning Satellite System (GPS) as implemented by SAIC'sWireless Systems Group (WSG). The GPS system 18 is operativelyassociated with the transponder system 4 and can be employed to track,dispatch, and monitor service technicians and their input devices atnumerous customer service locations. In one aspect, the GPS system 18interacts with a transponder mounted on a mobile vehicle (not shown)employed by the service technician at a customer service location.

One purpose of the GPS System 18 is to provide supervisors and managersof service technicians with more comprehensive technician activityinformation. The GPS system 18 can include one or more servers (notshown) and one or more databases (not shown) for transmitting, receivingand storing data associated with satellite communications. In thecontext of the present methods and systems, the GPS system 18 serves toacquire information associated with a customer service locationincluding, for example, the latitude and longitude coordinates of thecustomer service location.

The dispatch system 20 serves to receive, process and transmitinformation related to service required at one or more customer servicelocations. In one embodiment, the dispatch system 20 includes a server,a database and one or more graphical interfaces for receiving commandsfrom a user. Such commands can include, for example, entry on agraphical user interface (GUI) of customer information and a problemdescription associated with a particular interruption or disruption ofservice. The dispatch system 20 communicates with the technician server6 to process and transmit information related to actions to be performedat a customer service location. Examples of dispatch systems suitablefor use in connection with the present methods and systems include the“LMOS,” “IDS” and “WAFA” systems of BellSouth Telecommunications.

The address guide system 22 includes a database 26 for storing universaltype address information, examples of which are shown in FIG. 2. Theaddress guide system 22 can be considered the keeper of all addresses inthe universe of telecommunications services. The address guide system 22helps to promote valid addresses as customer service locations. Forexample, if a customer contacts a telecommunications service provider,the customer can be queried for the customer's address. If the customerprovides an address of 123 XYZ Street and there is no 123 XYZ Street inthe database 26 of the address guide system 22, then a correct addressfor the customer can be confirmed and entered into the database 26. Anexample of an address guide system 22 suitable for use in accordancewith the present methods and systems is the “RSAG” application ofBellSouth Telecommunications.

The customer record system 24 is operatively connected to the addressguide system 22 and includes a database 28 for storing customer relatedinformation, examples of which are shown in FIG. 2. In one embodiment ofthe present methods and systems, the customer record system 24 serves tostore information related to a particular service location and customer.For example, when telephone service is initially requested by acustomer, a record in the database 28 can be populated with informationthat will create a correspondence between the customer's address and thedetails of the telephone service to be installed. Records in thedatabase 28 of the customer record system 24 typically remain effectiveas long as service at a particular address remains the same for thatcustomer. The customer record system 24 interfaces with the dispatchsystem 20 during the operation of the dispatch system 20 to generatework orders associated with service issues at customer servicelocations. For example, if problems arise with a customer's service,such as the initial installation order for that service, the dispatchsystem 20 schedules the work order. The dispatch system 20 draws oninformation contained in the customer record system 24 to create thedispatch order for a service technician to perform any actions requiredby the work order.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 through 3, an operative example of the presentmethods and systems include a service technician at a customer servicelocation with an input device 2. In accordance with the connectionsdescribed above, in step 32 the technician server 6 can request thecoordinates, in terms of latitude and longitude, from the servicetechnician at the customer service location. The request of step 32 canbe performed, for example, in step 34 by a job closeout scriptapplication of the technician server 6 that is adapted to query theservice technician regarding the customer's location at the conclusionof a service call. The technician server 6 may check to determinewhether a latitude and longitude are already present in the customer'sinformation in the database 28 of the customer record system 24.

The technician server 6 can then instruct the service technician in step35 to verify his presence at the customer service location. In step 36,the GPS system 18 is accessed, such as through a “Fleet Optimizer”application (BellSouth Technologies) associated with the technicianserver 6, to obtain latitude and longitude coordinates derived from thelocation of the service technician's input device 2. In step 38, the GPSsystem 18 transmits a signal to the transponder system 4 operativelyassociated with the input device 2 and obtains coordinates of thecustomer service location in step 40. The GPS system transmits theobtained coordinates to the technician server 6 in step 42. In step 44,the dispatch system 20 is updated with the newly obtained latitude andlongitude information. In step 46, the database 28 of the customerrecords system 24 is updated to reflect this latitude and longitudeinformation. In step 48, the latitude and longitude information istransmitted to and stored in the database 26 associated with the addressguide system 22.

It can be seen that just because one has a street address for a customerservice location, it does not necessarily follow that locating thecustomer service location can be readily performed. For example, astreet address in Pittsburgh, Pa. might be Three Rivers Stadium Park. Ifthis is the only information available, however, it may be difficult tofind the customer service location where work needs to be performed. Useof a GPS system to associate coordinates with a street address permitsone to know the position of a customer service location, and hence thelocation of a service technician performing work at that customerservice location.

In another example of the present methods and systems, a new customerrequests service installation at ABC Street. Verification is performedto determine that ABC Street is a valid address. If it is a validaddress, and if latitude and longitude information has been populated inthe address guide system 22, then the information can be usedeffectively by a service technician to address the customer's needs. Inaddition, if a service issue later arises with the customer servicelocation, the dispatch system 20 can obtain the customer record,including the customer name, contact number, the type of facilities thecustomer has, and latitude and longitude information associated with thecustomer service location. This complete record of information providesenhanced response time for addressing the customer's service needs.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, in another aspect of the present methodsand systems, a mapping system 52 can be provided for routing travel of aservice technician between more than one customer service location. Themapping system 52 is configured and programmed to provide travel orrouting directions to a service technician from a first location to atleast a second location where customer service is to be performed. Themapping system 52 can include conventional mapping software installed ona computer-readable medium operatively associated with the input device.The mapping system 52 can also be accessed remotely, such as through awireless connection between the mapping system 52 and the input device2.

In one embodiment, the technician server 6 functions to provide latitudeand longitude information to the mapping system 52. This informationincludes “from” information (i.e., the origin customer service locationof the service technician) and “to” information (i.e., the destinationcustomer service location to where travel is desired for the servicetechnician). Before dispatch to the next customer service location, theservice technician requests driving instructions in step 62. Thetechnician server 6 queries the “Fleet Optimizer” application, or itsfunctional equivalent, in step 64 to obtain the current customer servicelocation in step 66, which can be used by the mapping system 52 as the“from” location. If necessary, and in accordance with previousdiscussion of the present methods and systems, the GPS system 18 can beaccessed to obtain “from” latitude and longitude coordinates in step 68.

The address guide system 22 can then be accessed by the technicianserver 6 in step 70 to provide the “to” location to the mapping system52, including latitude and longitude information for the destinationcustomer service location. In step 72, the technician server 6 transmitsthe “from” and “to” coordinates to the technician input device 2. Instep 74, the mapping system 52 processes the “from” and “to”coordinates. The mapping system 52 can then generate and output drivingdirections from the “from” location to the “to” location for the servicetechnician in step 76. It can be appreciated that the output of themapping system 52 including the driving directions can be in anyconventional format suitable for communicating the directions to theservice technician. For example, the output including the drivingdirections can be in electronic format or hard copy format.

As discussed above, accurate latitude and longitude coordinates may havealready been established for the present or origin customer servicelocation. In the process of dispatching a service technician to a nextcustomer service location, however, it may be necessary to engage theGPS system 18 to obtain these latitude and longitude coordinates. TheGPS system 18 can therefore be employed to provide knowledge of one ormore service technician locations for various customer service locationswhere service is required. The GPS system 18 also functions to promoteproviding correct customer service location information, includinglatitude and longitude coordinates associated with customer addressesand/or associated critical equipment. It can be seen that algorithms canbe applied in the dispatch system 20 and/or the technician server 6 touse this knowledge of service technician whereabouts and customerservice locations to facilitate moving the next best or availableservice technician to the next highest priority or most appropriateservice location.

The term “computer-readable medium” is defined herein as understood bythose skilled in the art. A computer-readable medium can include, forexample, memory devices such as diskettes, compact discs of bothread-only and writeable varieties, optical disk drives, and hard diskdrives. A computer-readable medium can also include memory storage thatcan be physical, virtual, permanent, temporary, semi-permanent and/orsemi-temporary. A computer-readable medium can further include one ormore data signals transmitted on one or more carrier waves.

It can be appreciated that, in some embodiments of the present methodsand systems disclosed herein, a single component can be replaced bymultiple components, and multiple components replaced by a singlecomponent, to perform a given function. Except where such substitutionwould not be operative to practice the present methods and systems, suchsubstitution is within the scope of the present invention.

Examples presented herein are intended to illustrate potentialimplementations of the present communication method and systemembodiments. It can be appreciated that such examples are intendedprimarily for purposes of illustration. No particular aspect or aspectsof the example method and system embodiments, described herein areintended to limit the scope of the present invention.

Whereas particular embodiments of the invention have been describedherein for the purpose of illustrating the invention and not for thepurpose of limiting the same, it can be appreciated by those of ordinaryskill in the art that numerous variations of the details, materials andarrangement of parts may be made within the principle and scope of theinvention without departing from the invention as described in theappended claims.

1.-24. (canceled)
 25. A method for generating travel directions for atechnician traveling from a first location to at least a secondlocation, the method comprising: accessing a server for directing aglobal satellite positioning system to obtain at least one set of “from”coordinates associated with the first location; accessing the server fordirecting the global satellite positioning system to obtain at least oneset of “to” coordinates associate with the second location; transmittingthe at least one set of “from” and the at least one set of “to”coordinates to a mapping unit; generating travel directions in themapping unit based on the at least one set of “to” and the at least oneset of “from” coordinates; and outputting the travel directions to thetechnician.
 26. The method of claim 25, wherein accessing the server toobtain the at least one set of “to” coordinates comprises receiving adata transmission from an input device indicating a street address ofthe second location.
 27. The method of claim 26, further comprisingaccessing the mapping system, by the input device, remotely.
 28. Themethod of claim 26, further comprising tracking a location of the inputdevice.
 29. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one set of“from” and the at least one set of “to” coordinates are stored in atleast one database.
 30. The method of claim 25, wherein the secondlocation is a customer service location where a customer service is tobe performed.
 31. The method of claim 25, further comprising accessing,by the server, an address guide.
 32. The method of claim 31, furthercomprising: associating the at least one set of “from” coordinate with avalid street address; and retrieving the valid street address from theaddress guide.
 33. The method of claim 31, further comprising:associating the at least one set of “to” coordinate with a valid streetaddress; and retrieving the valid street address from the address guide.34. A system for generating travel directions for a technician travelingfrom a first location to at least a second location, the systemcomprising: means for accessing a server for directing a globalsatellite positioning system to obtain at least one set of “from”coordinates associated with the first location; means for accessing theserver for directing the global satellite positioning system to obtainat least one set of “to” coordinates associate with the second location;means for transmitting the at least one set of “from” and the at leastone set of “to” coordinates to a mapping unit; means for generatingtravel directions in the mapping unit based on the at least one set of“to” and the at least one set of “from” coordinates; and means foroutputting the travel to the technician.
 35. The system of claim 34,wherein the means for accessing the server to obtain the at least oneset of “from” coordinates comprises means for receiving a datatransmission from an input device operatively associated with themapping system.
 36. The system of claim 34, wherein the means foraccessing the server to obtain the at least one set of “to” coordinatescomprises means for receiving a data transmission from an input deviceoperatively associated with the mapping system.
 37. The system of claim36, further comprising means for tracking a location of the inputdevice.
 38. The system of claim 34, further comprising means for storingthe at least one set of “from” and the at least one set of “to”coordinates in at least one database.
 39. The system of claim 34,further comprising means for accessing an address guide.
 40. The systemof claim 39, further comprising: means for associating the at least oneset of “from” coordinate with a valid street address; and means forretrieving the valid street address from an address guide
 41. The systemof claim 39, further comprising: means for associating the at least oneset of “to” coordinate with a valid street address; and means forretrieving the valid street address from an address guide.
 42. Acomputer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which whenexecuted performs a method for generating travel directions for atechnician traveling from a first location to at least a secondlocation, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:accessing a server for directing a global satellite positioning systemto obtain at least one set of “from” coordinates associated with thefirst location; accessing the server for directing the global satellitepositioning system to obtain at least one set of “to” coordinatesassociate with the second location; transmitting the at least one set of“from” and the at least one set of “to” coordinates to a mapping unit;generating travel directions in the mapping unit based on the at leastone set of “to” and the at least one set of “from” coordinates; andoutputting the travel directions to the technician.
 43. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 42, wherein accessing the server toobtain the at least one set of “to” coordinates further comprises:associating the at least one set of “to” coordinate with a valid streetaddress; and retrieving the valid street address from an address guide.44. The computer-readable medium of claim 42, wherein accessing theserver to obtain the at least one set of “from” coordinates comprises:associating the at least one set of “from” coordinate with a validstreet address; and retrieving the valid street address from an addressguide.
 45. An input device configured for use by a technician at aservice location, the input device comprising: means for requesting atleast one set of coordinates associated with at least one servicelocation; means for accessing a technician server for directing a globalsatellite positioning system to obtain the at least one set ofcoordinates associated with the at least one service location; means forreceiving and transmitting information related to the at least oneservice location;
 46. The input device of claim 45, wherein the inputdevice comprises at least one of the following: a wireless personalcomputer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, and awireless pager.
 47. The input device of claim 45, further comprising atransponder operatively associated with the input device.
 48. The inputdevice of claim 45, further comprising a protocol server operativelyassociated with the input device.
 49. The input device of claim 48,wherein the protocol server is configured to process information fromthe input device comprising at least one of the following: a user ID, apassword, a radio serial number, and an input device serial number.